Monday, December 18, 2017

When the Left Hand Doesn't Know What the Right Hand is Doing...

So, today the firearms instructor in me comes out.

I was out to lunch with Moose when several Happy Knoll PD Detectives walked by us, as evidenced by the badges and holsters they were wearing with their shirts and ties.

One Detective in particular stood out to my trained eyes, as my keen powers of observation noticed the location of her spare magazine. It was on her right hip, behind her holster.  I couldn't even find a picture of it online because it simply isn't done, so I had to take this pic to illustrate...




Now give me second to go unfuck myself...  Ahhhh, that's better.

Most of my CCW, shooter and cop readers are either shuddering or staring at their screens in disbelief right now, but for those who don't carry a gun regularly and don't understand, I'll explain. 

"Strong hand" means if you're right handed, you generally control your firearm with your right hand.  You draw with your right hand from a holster on your right hip, press the trigger if necessary with your right hand, press the magazine release with your right hand, etc.  Your left hand is your "support hand" and handles other ancillary duties.  For lefties this is reversed.

Generally, when a handgun is reloaded it's done with the support hand.  The strong hand maintains a master grip on the weapon while the support hand retrieves the fresh magazine and inserts it into the magazine well. 

This would be rather difficult for a right handed person with the magazine on their right hip behind the holster.  She would have to transition the pistol to her support hand and retrieve the magazine with her strong hand.  I wonder if she goes to the range like that.

In an ideal world, spare magazines should be reachable with EITHER hand.  This way, in the event of an injury to one hand, the officer could still reload and shoot even with only one "good" hand.

Hopefully the Happy Knoll PD firearms instructors can straighten the detective out...

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